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Highlights of April

We are delighted to inform you that our Deputy General Manager, Harish Daware, has been engaged in capacity building and technical training on watershed development in Malawi, in Southeast Africa. The trainings to officials of the NGO Malawi International and those in the Department of Land Resources took place from April 22-26. The village of Khole, where these concepts taught by WOTR have been employed, has emerged as a model village and is inspiring other projects in the region, like those in Chivalo and Machhinga. Read more

SIED receives award for promoting organic cotton

We are delighted to share that WOTR's sister concern - Sanjeevani Institute for Empowerment & Development (SIED) has received an award from CottonConnect in recognition for its support and commitment to Organic Cotton Projects . SIED has successfully completed the project 'the Organic Cotton Farmer Training Programme' (OCFTP) in 37 villages of Khultabad and Kannad blocks of Aurangabad transforming the lives of organic cotton farmers by training them in adopting organic cotton production practices.

We are happy to share a working paper written by Koichi Fujita (Kyoto University), Yogesh Shinde (WOTR) and Ramkumar Bendapudi (WOTR) published under the INDAS-South Asia (Integrated Area Studies on South Asia) project. It is one of the research outcomes of the study “New Developmental Stage of South Asian Agriculture and Rural Economies”. This paper is a preliminary report on the Bhojdari village analysing the structure of the land, labour, and agricultural innovations by collecting household data. Read more

There is a need to create mechanisms to support widows in the Vidarbha region of Maharashtra but such initiatives are rare. One of the few such projects is the Empowering Women and Children in Distress (WID) project in the Yavatmal district. We are happy to share with you an article on the WID project in German, published in the punkt.um magazine of the ANDHERI HILFE.

‘Arogyam Dhansampada’, a short film in Marathi captures the various activities implemented under the health component of the Climate Change Adaptation project. And how these activities addressed health, hygiene and sanitation at the village level. . Watch it here

The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has predicted the Indian summer of 2019 to be warmer than usual, up to a degree higher than average. The IMD report based on simulations from the 'Monsoon Mission Coupled Forecasting System (MMCFS)' model also projects April, May and June months to be warmer by 0.5 to one degree Celcius. In an article in Pune Mirror researcher Arjuna Srinidhi says, “Urban heat island effect from construction works, vehicular pollution, suspended particulate matters (SPM) and daily human activities are aggravating the impacts of rise in temperature.” Read more

We are delighted to share that the 'The CSR Journal' has covered WOTR's partnership with Livinguard Technologies AG to provide clean drinking water in 14 locations of Maharashtra. The article talks about how the issue of clean drinking water in villages can be tackled with the use of technology, collaborating with NGOs and possessing partnerships with banks. Read more

In Maharashtra, the current drought has severely affected the agriculture scenario in the state. In particular, the Beed district and the Marathwada region in general have been among the most affected. The shortages of water affect both humans and livestock alike. This in-depth article from IndiaSpend, interviews a number of WOTR officials working in the areas and looks into the way drought is affecting rural communities and their coping mechanisms. Read more

We are happy to share that Marathi daily, 'Deshonnati' has covered the regional workshop organised by WOTR at Godri, Jalna. The representatives of 14 villages from Bhokardan block in Jalna district participated in the workshop to understand the situation of groundwater and what could be done to replenish groundwater resources. Read more

Farm ponds can play a major role in water storage and harvesting, as can be seen in Maharashtra and many other states of India. However, on a larger scale, they do not take into account the carrying capacity of the watershed, points out WOTR's Senior Researcher Eshwer Kale in an interview with the Times of India. Read more

WOTRian of the Month - Premsagar Tasgaonkar

Premsagar Tasgaonkar is currently a Researcher at WOTR Centre for Resilience Studies (W-CReS), Pune. At present, he is working on a collaborative research project that focuses on heat stress and its relationship to rural livelihoods in South Asia. He shares his story with us here.

"Like any other field, the research field has its plus and minus points. The plus points are that there are constant learning opportunities. At TISS, and at WOTR, I have got the chance to explore new areas like climate change, heat stress, agriculture, natural resources management and so on. At WOTR, we have an inter and trans-disciplinary approach. Compared to others, this is one of our strong points". Read more

Photogallery for the month of April 2019

Bhagavat Gavande, Jal Sevak, explaining the 3D model of Malegaon’s aquifer at a village fair in Kolegaon. WOTR’s CDVI or CoDriVE – Visual Integrator tool is used for such discussions as part of our water management work

Village level training on Water Budgeting at Siddheshwarwadi village, Ahmednagar district, Maharashtra

A demonstration of vermicompost preparation at Astagaon village in Ahmednagar district, Maharashtra

Latest Publications

Since the lockdown was implemented on March 24, 2020, WOTR has been working at the frontlines, across seven states in India, being a source of support for the rural communities, especially farmers in these difficult times. We present to you a snapshot of our work — the relief measures we are undertaking on the ground to arrest the losses incurred by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Every year March 22 is observed as World Water Day as a means of focusing attention on the importance of water and advocating for the sustainable management of water resources. This year the theme for the day is " Water and Climate Change" and we all know how these two are inextricably linked.

We are happy to inform you that an article by our Senior Researchers, Arjuna Srinidhi and Divya Nazareth, titled 'Krushi Sanskritit Rujtey Plastic Sanskriti' was included in a special compendium titled 'Plastic Bandiche Shivdhanushya’ (Banning plastic: A herculean task).